JM's blog

I have never been so proud of humanity as I have been in Palestine. Despite the overwhelming oppression and difficulty to survive here, there are people in the West Bank struggling not only to survive but thrive. I am in Café Sima now, owned by a Palestinian woman who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and has returned home to Bethlehem. No matter how silly it may seem, I swear that every cappuccino and dessert she serves is an act of resistance.

little girl

all dressed up
with no place to go.
you’re smiling at us
and I don’t understand why
you choose to show that emotion
in this place of all places—surrounded
by memories of death and a feeling of being
trapped
in poverty and injustice
barricading you in—a Wall whose harsh, raw concrete
glares down at you and tells you that you are nothing.
but it does not reflect your spirit, somehow intact within.
if God has any mercy, may God somehow leave that

In traffic that can only be described cacophonous, I entered Bethlehem, the city of Jesus’ birth. And that’s the strangest part about coming here. In the most fleeting of times does it hit me that this is the place where it all went down - where the shepherds walked, where Boaz lived, and where the birth of the one who was to change the world came into humanity. Maybe one expects to feel different. To see the desert and the people and be flooded with the internalization of the story, and come to some sort of immediate epiphany. That doesn’t seem to be how it works. It’s slower than that.

This morning I came to a both a sad discovery and a reminder of why I am here. My host mother, a tiny 72-year-old woman who looks much younger than her age, has told me multiple times that she gets "nervous." Her English not being quite good, and my Arabic being quite terrible, I try to stick to conversations in which either she or I do not have to give lengthy answers to questions.

This session has been in one word: intense. A really good intensity. Through my volunteer placement, Arabic classes and cultural nights, it can be easy to slip into a routine where you start going through the motions of the program. However, this program is being held in Palestine, and nothing is routine here.

Food consciousness has been a big part of my experience on this trip. This has included fasting for me, as well as being overwhelmed by the sight, smell, feel and taste of the bread with the family in Artas that reminded me so much of my grandmother. Today, as part of our overnight trip to the north, we visited the Golan Heights. Here, in Syrian land occupied by Israel, I ate lava-red cherries from trees in my ancestral homeland. These remarkable treats, in their firm, moist texture and deep earthy sweetness spoke of experienced hands, fertile fields, clean water and a blessing from God.

Before leaving for the Palestine Summer Encounter, I began researching agriculture in Palestine for my graduate program. In my search, I came across an article on Daher’s Vineyard, a farm in the Bethlehem area that was surrounded by Israeli settlements on four sides and under constant threat from settlers, soldiers and the Israeli legal system. The article left me in suspense as to what might have been the fate of this Palestinian family’s struggle to keep their land and their livelihood, so I had it in mind to visit as soon as I could, assuming it was still here.

My dad asked me to write about my host family and what I’m eating. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to write about a typical day for me here.

I am living in Beit Sahour, a little outside Bethlehem. The family I'm staying with are wonderful and have made me feel that I'm a part of their family. I am staying in my own room with my own bathroom. For now, it's just me, but I will have a roommate next month.

For the sake of full disclosure, these are the exact words that came into my head when I entered Israel: “Why would anyone fight over this god-forsaken land?” All I could see was dirt. Miles and miles of dirt, dust and desert. I entered via Jordan, so I was already tired and disoriented from the nearly five hours it took me to go from taxi to taxi and bus to bus and line to line all so I could be questioned by Israeli security at the border. The drive from the border to Jerusalem was around 30 minutes.

Issalaam alaykum min Bayt Lahem!

Ismi John, and I am one of the two representatives of Middle East Fellowship who will be on the ground in Bethlehem this summer, helping coordinate the Palestine Summer Encounter program. Sara will join me for the second session, but I have been here since May 9, working in the Holy Land Trust office putting things together for our first session to start here at the end of the week. As I work with our program calendar and our office staff finalizes volunteer opportunities and homestay placements, I am growing increasingly more excited for the participants to arrive and soon begin their amazing summer experience with the PSE program.